Two Palestinian suicide bombers who killed themselves and nine other people in explosions 12 hours apart over the weekend appeared to be working in concert, Israeli officials and Palestinian said Sunday.
The bombers lived barely a block apart in Hebron, belonged to the militant Hamas movement and carried out their lethal attacks disguised as religiously observant Jews.
On Sunday, as Israelis mourned their dead, the police did not publicly link the two attacks. But in Hebron, a single mourning tent was set up for the two bombers, with coffee and candy handed out to the friends and relatives who gathered.
Fuad Qawasmeh, 21, detonated his explosives on Saturday night near the center of Hebron, killing an Israeli man and his pregnant wife. The couple were among the 450 Jewish settlers living in a city that has more than 100,000 Palestinian residents.
The blast came about two hours before Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Prime Minister, Mahmoud Abbas, conducted the highest-level talks between the two sides since fighting erupted in September 2000.
As in the past, the possibility of political movement was met with violence by those opposing the negotiations. Sharon proceeded with the meeting, but faced criticism from right-wing Israelis. The talks lasted past midnight and produced no breakthroughs, though it brought a pledge to hold further discussions.
But shortly before 6am Sunday, a suicide bomber struck after boarding a No. 6 bus in the French Hill neighborhood of northern Jerusalem. The Israeli police said that this bomber was also dressed like a religious Jew, with a white prayer shawl and a skull cap.
The bus bombing was the first suicide attack in Jerusalem in six months, and blasted out the windows and doors of the bus.
Ball bearings inside the bomb pierced the victims and the frame of the bus. Scorched and twisted metal dangled from the blood-stained ceiling. Several of the seven dead remained upright in their seats, with their heads tilted back, as if they were sleeping.
The police did not name the bomber, but Palestinians identified him as Bassem al-Takruri, 19, who lived in the same neighborhood as Qawasmeh.
The mourning tent that was being set up for Qawasmeh was extended to the friends and relatives of Takruri.
Less than a half-hour after the bus bombing, and only a short distance away, another bomber blew himself up, this time on the street in a Palestinian residential area on the outskirts of Jerusalem. No one else was hurt.
The timing raised suspicions of a link to the bus attack. However, the Jerusalem Magistrates Court issued an order threatening legal action against anyone who published information about the investigation.
The three suicide bombings, along with an attempted shooting attack on a West Bank settlement that Israeli troops foiled overnight, was one of the most intense bursts of Palestinian violence in recent months.
Sunday's violence also included the shooting dead of two Palestinian teenagers in the Gaza Strip, Palestinians said. The Israeli army said its forces fired on armed men in Khan Yunis in the south, and Beit Hanun in the north, but had no information on Palestinian casualties.
Also, Palestinian militiamen shot dead a fellow Palestinian suspected of working as an informer for Israel. He was killed in a central square in the West Bank city of Nablus, witnesses said.
Meanwhile, the body of a man washed up on a Tel Aviv beach has been identified as the British would-be suicide bomber who fled an attack after his explosive device did not work last month, Israeli media reported yesterday.
Positive identification of Omar Khan Sharif was made possible after DNA samples from his family arrived at the Abu Kabir pathology institute near Tel Aviv.
Sharif's cause of death was given as drowning.
Sharif and a companion, Asif Mohammed Hanif, also a British national, attempted to carry out a double suicide bombing at a popular Tel Aviv beachfront cafe on April 30.
Hanif blew himself up, killing three Israelis and wounding up to 50 others, but Sharif scuffled with bystanders and fled the scene, dropping his explosive device, which was later detonated by police sappers in a controlled explosion.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in